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There is an old phenomenon in theatre arts: Education! And there is a new tendency: theatre arts for the very young! The relationship to education is clear, but what about the profit for the arts? The world of children as a horizon of experiences? The role of music as a dramaturgical element? Is it needed to divide the performance in actors and spectators? Is there a special age for a successful reception? How much should theatre artists be confronted with the physical and psychological development of children? It seems that Theatre for Early Years is a work in progress. There are more and more examples on the stages of the world: In Europe, in the States, in Australia. A variety of different perspectives are included in this research in performing arts from birth to three. The authors are reflecting their work, their observations, their directorship - to discover a new audience, to accompany the new generation in aesthetics, to make the signs of the time transparent. And maybe the development of Theatre for Early Years is a new challenge to renew the language of theatre, to establish an art of simplicity for the complexity of theatre.
List of contents
Contents: Wolfgang Schneider: Theatre for Early Years? Questions about Qualifications - Gerd Taube: First steps. Aesthetic peculiarities of the «Theatre for Early Years» - Carlos Herans: Why «Theatre for Early Years»? Memories and highlights of artistic experiences - Ana Lúcia Goulart de Faria/Sandra Regina Simonis Richter: Education meets theatre. Pedagogical remarks about the role of arts in early childhood - Geesche Wartemann: Wechselspiele - Playing with interplay. Staging the theatrical structure, and the fragility of the ground rules, in «Theatre for Early Years» - Ute Pinkert: Starting all over again? Changing ways of perception through theatre - not only for young children - János Novák: The joy of re-discovering the world. 'Communitas' and streaming in the performances made for babies - Wolfgang Schneider: The category of simplicity and the complexity of the theatre. Art education requirements, neurobiological justification and cultural policy considerations for the dramatic arts beginning with earliest childhood - Dan Höjer: Big drama for small spectators. Unga Klara's Swedish experiment - Charlotte Fallon/Michel van Loo: Babies and theatre. Notes about the imagination on stage - Agnès Desfosses: Little ones and adults, alive and aware. Theatre brings together - Stephan Rabl: Surprise. Creating «Theatre for Early Years» between everything and nothing - Ivica Simic: «Dance and movement is a natural choice of language». The art of making theatre art for small children - Cate Fowler: Installation theatre. Creating a performance space for babies and toddlers - Megan Alrutz: Visionaries wanted! Theatre for very young audiences in the United States - Gabi dan Droste: Distinguished theatre for young children. About the European network Small Size - Roberto Frabetti: Does theatre for children exist? An unlikely model - Myrto Dimitriadou: Theatre and children are beautiful and 'ding dong' ... Artistic processes in theatre work for the smallest of the small (A letter to the editor) - Melanie Florschütz/Barbara Kölling: The discovery of the small child as a spectator. The performer Melanie Florschütz and the director Barbara Kölling in a discussion on «Theatre for Early Years» - Jo Belloli: Unearthing the potential. Exploring «Theatre for Early Years» in the UK - Sarah Argent/Kevin Lewis: «I was struck by the difference in age between us, but by the similarity in hairstyles». Journeying out of the blue.
About the author
The Editor: Wolfgang Schneider, Professor Dr. phil., is director of the Institute for Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim (Germany). He was Founding Director of the Kinder- und Jugendtheaterzentrum in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, since 1997 he has been Chairman of ASSITEJ Germany, since 2002 President of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People. Furthermore he is author and editor of several books and magazines for arts education.
